Chapter 5: Crescent Moon Island

Li Qing sat cross-legged on a giant rock, his brows tightly furrowed.

He should have been overjoyed, yet his face was filled with worry.

The aptitude of this body was quite ordinary, so if he wanted to rapidly improve his cultivation now, he would have to rely on the support of resources.

Li Qing had already planned to cultivate both Dharma and body, which meant he would require an even more massive amount of spirit stones.

The early stages of the Thunder Spirit Art focused primarily on tempering the body.

The demand for resources was not very high for the time being; even without the support of precious medicinal herbs, he could still steadily advance.

He wondered if it was because this body had been struck by lightning.

He encountered no obstacles whatsoever while practicing the Thunder Spirit Art, and the smoothness of his progress even exceeded his own expectations.

Li Qing’s predecessor had lost his life due to a lack of funds; unable to afford treasures containing lightning, he had been forced to draw in the lightning of the world, which led to his demise.

The true core of the early stages of the Thunder Spirit Art was to draw lightning into the body and refine it into a lightning seed.

By relying on the power of the lightning seed to slowly forge the body, one could lay the foundation for future cultivation of the Thunder Spirit Art.

As things stood, the path of Dharma cultivation was extremely difficult.

If Li Qing wanted to quickly improve his cultivation, it seemed he could only achieve his desired results by supplementing it with medicinal pills.

The most serious problem right now was that his total net worth was no more than fifty-some low-grade spirit stones.

Having poured all his previous savings into practicing the Thunder Spirit Art, it could be said that Li Qing was now penniless.

After much thought, Li Qing turned his attention to the Sea-Suppressing Pearl.

***

On the outer islands of the Qianyu Archipelago.

A red sun leaped above the endless sea.

A cyan figure quietly hurried toward the north of the island.

Along the way, Li Qing tried his best to avoid familiar fellow disciples, eventually arriving at a bustling pier.

The Qianyu Archipelago was merely a corner of the Haoyuan Sea.

The endless sea was vast and boundless, and travel between the various islands mostly required spirit boats.

Qi Refining stage cultivators were simply incapable of flight, and even those at the Foundation Establishment stage rarely flew.

The distances between islands varied, and flying consumed a massive amount of spiritual energy, which was why a wide variety of travel methods had emerged.

The most common of these was the spirit boat, a special type of magical artifact specifically crafted for this purpose.

For traveling across the sea, spirit boat artifacts were the most cost-effective; they not only consumed relatively little spiritual energy but were also extremely fast.

The pier was crowded with people, making it very lively.

At some point, Li Qing had changed into an ordinary Daoist robe and wore a bamboo hat to cover his face.

People were coming and going.

Most of them were inner sect disciples, and he did not want his affairs to be known by others.

After arriving at the pier, Li Qing casually found an ordinary spirit boat.

His destination this time was Crescent Island.

Crescent Island was a small, crescent-shaped island located near the outer islands of the Qianyu Archipelago.

Although small in area, it was a very prosperous place in the vicinity.

The Qianshui Yuling Sect possessed a massive number of outer sect disciples, and the cultivation resources they required were astronomical.

Due to its natural geographical location, Crescent Island had gradually developed into a marketplace right next to the outer islands.

Despite its small size, it handled a massive volume of resource transactions from the surrounding area.

In fact, there were many trading shops within the outer islands as well.

However, to protect his own secrets, Li Qing still chose to be cautious and leave the outer islands to purchase supplies.

After boarding the spirit boat, he found a random seat and sat down. Seeing a mortal servant boy walking over, Li Qing tossed out a low-grade spirit stone.

Near the outer islands of the Qianyu Archipelago, it was more common for mortals and cultivators to live together.

After all, most cultivators still had quite a few family members.

Because these people lacked spiritual roots and were unable to step onto the path of immortality, they gradually began to make a living by serving the nearby cultivators.

Crescent Island was not far from here.

This single low-grade spirit stone was the fare for the trip.

Li Qing looked helplessly at the spirit stones on his person; he had lost one before things had even begun.

In the Haoyuan Sea, spirit stones were classified by the concentration of spiritual energy into low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and the legendary top-grade spirit stones.

Excluding top-grade spirit stones, the exchange rate for the others was generally one to one hundred.

That is to say, one hundred low-grade spirit stones could be exchanged for one mid-grade spirit stone, and so on.

While closing his eyes to rest, Li Qing did not give up on his cultivation; after all, compared to others, he still had his own advantage: the Sea-Suppressing Pearl he carried with him.

***

"Crescent Island has arrived. Welcome back to ride our spirit boats again, honored immortals."

A shout interrupted Li Qing from his cultivation.

Li Qing looked up and glanced around, his figure following the surrounding crowd as he entered Crescent Island.

Upon entering the island, he saw a marketplace.

The layout of Crescent Island was extremely simple, consisting of three prosperous main roads, with the middle area divided into scattered stalls for cultivators to set up their own shops.

On both sides of the roads were tall, bustling storefronts.

"Spirit Talisman Shop"

"Strange Treasure Pavilion"

"..."

Various shops were gathered in a complex mix.

From time to time, one could see guard teams composed of Qianshui Yuling Sect disciples patrolling back and forth along the roads.

This place fell under the jurisdiction of the sect, and both the surrounding stalls and the shops were required to pay rent on time.

In return, the Qianshui Yuling Sect provided guards and maintained order.

In the endless sea, order was a rare and precious thing.

In the world of cultivation, there were countless instances of killing for treasures, and some powerful evil cultivators would even slaughter entire regions for resources.

It was not uncommon for even sect cultivators to turn into pirates to earn resources.

Here on Crescent Island, there was no need to worry too much.

This place was close to the headquarters of the Qianshui Yuling Sect; anyone wanting to commit evil here had to weigh the terrifying existence sitting in the background.

Li Qing hurried past the surrounding shops and walked toward the interior.

The purpose of his trip was the Sea Spirit Pavilion.

Li Qing also carefully observed some of the cultivators from other sects he passed by.

Within the Qianyu Archipelago, the Qianshui Yuling Sect only occupied the Qianyu Island, which had the most concentrated spiritual energy and the largest area.

Most of the other spiritual islands were occupied by other forces, and numerous factions survived by submitting to the deterrence of the Qianshui Yuling Sect, needing only to hand over tributes on time to survive.

After passing through the bustling marketplace, Li Qing arrived at a tall, two-story shop.

Above the shop, a blue plaque bore the large characters "Sea Spirit Pavilion."

This shop was founded by a sect called the Sea Spirit Sect, and its main offerings were various spiritual fish and spiritual beasts from the sea.

The Sea Spirit Sect was located on a place called Spirit Fish Island within the Qianyu Archipelago.

Spirit Fish Island was merely a second-tier island with only one second-grade spiritual vein.

However, the Supreme Elder of the Sea Spirit Sect was an out-and-out Golden Core cultivator.

It was precisely because of the special location of Spirit Fish Island that a deep current flowed beneath the sea in that area, and precious spiritual fish often appeared beneath this massive current.

The Sea Spirit Sect possessed its own unique method of farming spiritual fish.

As a branch of sea monsters, spiritual fish held an importance in the endless sea that could not be ignored.

Some spiritual fish were even the primary materials for refining medicinal pills, and their various wonderful uses were too numerous to count.

Li Qing had come here to test some of his inner thoughts regarding the Sea-Suppressing Pearl.

I hope everyone will support me, vote, and most importantly, keep reading.

(End of chapter)